Content upload safety tool

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of content safety upload techniques are presented herein. In an implementation, outbound communications of client are monitored to detect personal identifying information (PII) in the content being communicated. Upon detection of PII one or more actions may be taken to manage the PII, for example warning a user, providing options to send or delete the communication, seeking approval and so on. Further, released PII may be tracked to permit reporting and subsequent management of PII released in outbound communications.

BACKGROUND

As the internet has become increasingly more popular, there has been acorresponding increase in the amount of personal identifying information(PII) that may be stored or displayed online, such as associated withuser accounts. The more personal identifying information availableonline the higher the risk of misuse of that information such as throughidentity theft, interference with privacy, threats to safety, and soforth.

Users commonly think about third party security breaches such as releaseof credit card information as the prevalent manner in which bad actorsmay obtain PII. However, users may unwittingly or inadvertently exposethemselves to risk everyday in ordinary interactions online such ase-mail, instant messaging, chats, social networking, postings anddealings with web sites or web services. Through these interactions, forinstance, users may upload content which includes PII such as names,addresses, telephone numbers, social security numbers and so forth.Additionally, users may not appreciate the risk of these everydayreleases of PII and may not be able to make informed decisions as towhether they should provide PII to various recipients or post itpublicly on their websites.

SUMMARY

Content upload safety techniques are described. In an implementation,outbound communications of a client are monitored, such as by executionof a detection module in the background on the client. The detectionmodule determines if content in the outbound communications of theclient contains personal identifying information (PII). For example, thedetecting may be based upon definitions of PII which may be by commonformat, keywords, user-defined values, and so forth.

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subjectmatter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment operable for communicationof content, such as web postings, emails, instant messages, and so on,across a network and is also operable to employ content upload safetytechniques.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a system in an exemplary implementationshowing a plurality of clients and a content upload tool service of FIG.1 in greater detail.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart depicting a procedure in an exemplaryimplementation in which outbound communication of a client are monitoredto detect personal identifying information (PII).

FIG. 4 is a flow chart depicting a procedure in an exemplaryimplementation in which personal identifying information (PII) inoutbound communication is detected, managed, and tracked.

FIG. 5 is a flow chart depicting a procedure in an exemplaryimplementation in which a warning is generated indicating that personalidentifying information (PII) is included in an outbound communication.

The same reference numbers are utilized in instances in the discussionto reference like structures and components.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Overview

Through a variety of posting of and interactions with content online(e.g., via the world wide web) users may unwittingly or inadvertentlysend out a variety of personal identifying information (PII). PII asused herein may include information that may be directly or indirectlyidentifying as well as other user defined sensitive information whichthe users may not want exposed. Some examples of directly identifyingPII include social security numbers, date of birth, addresses, names,account numbers, ages, and so forth. PII which might be indirectlyidentifying may include school names, sports teams a child participateson, places they hang out, email addresses, personal uniform resourcelocators (URL's), and instant messaging (IM) addresses. PII may alsoinclude user defined types of sensitive information such as religious orother group affiliations, travel plans (e.g., information that a housewill be empty), medical information, income information, and so on.

In the hands of bad actors the PII may be used for ill doings such asidentity theft, fraud, threats to property or personal security, and soforth. Thus, ordinary online interactions of users, such as web posts,emails, chats, web crawlers or bots, voice over internet protocol (VoIP)calls, text messaging, instant messaging, e-commerce with web services,and so on, may pose a safety and security risk to users. Additionally,users generally do not appreciate the risks, or know how to manage PIIin the content they produce for outbound communication. Further, toolsto assist users in proactively managing PII in outbound content arelimited or non-existent.

Content upload safety techniques are described which may be utilized toassist users or groups of users (e.g., families, businesses,organizations) in the detection, management, and tracking of personalidentifying information (PII). For example, a module may be executed tooperate on a client and monitor outbound communications of the client.The outbound communications may include a variety of content such asemails, web posting, instant messages, information entered via abrowser, and so forth. These content items may each include personalidentifying information (PII) which if sent from the client to arecipient may pose identity and security risks.

The module may further operate to determine if the content items indeedinclude PII. For instance an email message may be scanned and found tocontain an email address, a home address and an account username. Avariety of techniques may be used to identify PII in content such as bycommon formats of PII (e.g., xxx-xxx-xxxx is a phone number), bykeywords such as SSN for social security number, by specific userdefined values and so forth.

In an implementation, a variety of actions may be performed to managedetected PII. For instance, a warning may be formed indicating that PIIwas detected in an outbound communication, such as the email of theprevious example. In combination with the warning, a variety of optionsmay be provided, such as deleting the email, removing the PII from theemail, permitting the email to be sent with the PII, and so forth. Avariety of predefined and user specified preferences may be used todetermine which actions are performed in managing various PII anddifferent actions may be performed based upon the intended recipient.

Further, when PII is sent from a client to a recipient the sent PII maybe tracked. For instance, when PII is sent, an upload history may begenerated by a module which keeps track of released PII andcorresponding recipients. The upload history may be utilized ingeneration of reports which may be used to provide a comprehensive viewor map of all the PII which has been sent out with outboundcommunication for a user, client, or group. The associated user, client,or group may then use the report to take corrective action such as theremoval of posted PII.

In the following description, an exemplary environment is firstdescribed which is operable to employ the PII monitoring techniques.Exemplary procedures are then described which may operate in theexemplary environment, as well as in other environments.

Exemplary Environment

FIG. 1 is an illustration of an environment 100 operable forcommunication of content and messages across a network and to employ thecontent upload safety techniques of the present disclosure. Theenvironment 100 is illustrated as including a plurality of clients102(1), . . . , 102(N) that are communicatively coupled, one to another,over a network 104. The plurality of clients 102(1)-102(N) may beconfigured in a variety of ways. For example, one or more of the clients102(1)-102(N) may be configured as a computer that is capable ofcommunicating over the network 104, such as a desktop computer, a mobilestation, a game console, an entertainment appliance, a set-top boxcommunicatively coupled to a display device, a personal digitalassistant, a wireless phone, and so forth. The clients 102(1)-102(N) mayrange from full resource devices with substantial memory and processorresources (e.g., personal computers, television recorders equipped withhard disk) to low-resource devices with limited memory and/or processingresources (e.g., traditional set-top boxes). In the followingdiscussion, the clients 102(1)-102(N) may also relate to a person and/orentity that operate the client. In other words, client 102(1)-102(N) maydescribe a logical client that includes a user, software and/or amachine.

Additionally, although the network 104 is illustrated as the Internet,the network may assume a wide variety of configurations. For example,the network 104 may include a wide area network (WAN), a local areanetwork (LAN), a wireless network, a public telephone network, anintranet, and so on. Further, although a single network 104 is shown,the network 104 may be configured to include multiple networks. Forinstance, clients 102(1), 102(N) may be communicatively coupled via apeer-to-peer network to communicate, one to another. Each of the clients102(1), 102(N) may also be communicatively coupled to one or more of aplurality of web services 106 over the Internet. A variety of otherexamples are also contemplated.

Each of the plurality of clients 102(1), . . . , 102(N) is illustratedas including a respective one of a plurality of communication modules108(1), . . . , 108(N). In the illustrated implementation, each of theplurality of communication modules 108(1)-108(N) is executable on arespective one of the plurality of clients 102(1)-102(N) to provide avariety of interactions in which communications may be sent andreceived. Clients 102(1)-102(N) may form a variety of outboundcommunications such as between two clients, between a client and a webservice 106, and so on.

For example, one or more of the communication modules 108(1)-108(N) maybe configured to send and receive email. Email employs standards andconventions for addressing and routing such that the email may bedelivered across the network 104 utilizing a plurality of devices, suchas routers, other computing devices (e.g., email servers), and so on. Inthis way, emails may be transferred within a company over an intranet,across the world using the Internet, and so on. An email, for instance,may include a header, text, and attachments, such as documents,computer-executable files, and so on. The header contains technicalinformation about the source and oftentimes may describe the route themessage took from sender to recipient.

In another example, one or more of the communication modules108(1)-108(N) may be configured to send and receive instant messages.Instant messaging provides a mechanism such that each of the clients102(1)-102(N), when participating in an instant messaging session, maysend text messages to each other. The instant messages are typicallycommunicated in real time, although delayed delivery may also beutilized, such as by logging the text messages when one of the clients102(1)-102(N) is unavailable, e.g., offline. Thus, instant messaging maybe thought of as a combination of email and Internet chat in thatinstant messaging supports message exchange and is designed for two waylive chats. Therefore, instant messaging may be utilized for synchronouscommunication. For instance, like a voice telephone call, an instantmessaging session may be performed in real-time such that each user mayrespond to each other user as the instant messages are received. Instantmessaging may occur in a variety of ways such as via an instantmessaging service, directly via a peer-to-peer connection and so on.

Further, one or more of communication modules 108(1)-108(N) may beconfigured as an internet browser or other integrated or stand-aloneapplication through which clients 102(1)-102(N) may interact via network104 with a variety of online resources, websites, services and so forth.For instance, clients 102(1)-102(1N) may interact with one or more ofweb services 106 via network 104. Web services 106 represent an array ofresources available via the internet (e.g., network 104) and may includea plurality of internet service providers, online merchants, internetportals, web sites, and so forth. Each of web services 106 may beconfigured to provide one or more of a range of services 110. It will beappreciated that a variety of services 110 may be provided to clients102(1)-102(N) by web services 106. By way of example, services 110 mayinclude search service 110(1), email service 110(2), instant messaging110(3), an internet blog 110(4), web hosting 110(5), shopping 110(6),and web pages 110(7). This list is merely representative of the vastresources which may be made available to clients 102(1)-102(N) thoughweb services 106 and is not meant to be exhaustive.

Although communications configured as emails, instant messages, and webservice interactions have been described, a variety of textual andnon-textual (e.g., graphical messages, audio messages, and so on)communications, postings, interactions, and so forth may be communicatedfrom clients 102(1)-102(N) via the environment 100 without departingfrom the sprit and scope thereof.

In the various described interactions of clients 102(1)-102(N) viacommunication modules 108(1)-108(N) (e.g., outbound communications byemails, instant messages, and web service interactions), clients mayproduce a variety of content 112. Each client 102(1)-102(N) is depictedhaving respective content 112(1)-112(N) which represents the variety ofoutbound communications produced by clients 102(1)-102(N) such asemails, instant messages, search strings, text messages, voice overinternet protocol (VoIP) calls, information entered in forms on webpages, internet chats, web postings, blog postings, transactional datain e-commerce, and so on.

As previously described, the users in sending outbound communicationsand/or releasing content 112(1)-112(N) may expose themselves to relativeincreases in risk of loss of private information and accordinglyidentity theft. Upon sending outbound communications, users may losecontrol of the content 112(1)-112(N) in emails, instant messages,content posted or sent to a web site, purchasing information, and soforth. In other words, releasing content 112(1)-112(N) may pose aprivacy and security threat to users.

More particularly, the various content 112(1)-112(N) may contain avariety of personal identifying information (PII) (referred to hereingenerally as PII 114) which is represented in FIG. 1 as different setsof PII 114(k), 114(j) associated with different clients 102(1), 102(N)and content 112(1), 112(N) respectively. Sets of PII 114(k), 114(j)associated with different clients 102(1), 102(N) may include some or allof the same PII 114, or may be entirely different. When PII 114 isincluded in outbound communications, the PII 114 may be intercepted,viewed or received by others, and so forth, and accordingly may end upin the possession of bad actors that may use the PII 114 for fraudulent,illegal and/or malicious purposes such as identity theft, criminalactivity, and/or other misuses of PII 114.

PII 114 may include a variety of personal information of clients102(1)-102(N) and/or users of clients 102(1)-102(N) for example names,addresses, telephone numbers, zip codes, area codes, social securitynumbers, account names, photos, user or device identifiers, licensenumbers, account numbers and so forth. PII 114 might also include avariety of private or sensitive data, such as financial data, medicalrecords, customer lists, business data, group memberships, contacts orbuddy lists, internet history, download history, and so forth. PII 114may include information which directly identifies users (e.g., address,name, business name) or that is indirectly identifying of or traceableto users (e.g., a school name, a daycare name, a customer list).Further, PII 114 may relate to a client device, to an individual and/orto a group of associated people such as a family, a business, anorganization and so on. In an implementation described in more detail inFIG. 2, users may designate or define a variety of sensitive informationthey do not wish to be exposed via their interactions as PII 114. Thus,PII 114 as used herein generally refers to a variety of types ofinformation that has been designated as potentially risky to send inoutbound communications because the PII 114 may be used by others toengage in malicious, illegal, and/or fraudulent activities such asidentity theft, fraud, threats to person or property and so forthagainst an individual or group.

Loss of PII 114 via third parties has received some publicity andindividuals may be informed regarding the risks of third-party releasesof PII 114, such as through security breaches at a credit card web site.However, individuals may not appreciate the risk that their ownactivities (outbound communications, emails, posting etc.) may pose.Sending PII 114 such as phone numbers, addresses and so forth in oneparticular instant message, email or posting is an ordinary occurrenceand may seem innocuous to individuals. However, the cumulative amount ofPII 114 released in a variety of outbound communications (e.g., name inone item, address in another, zip code in another, and so on) may permitothers to reconstruct an electronic identity of individuals like puttingtogether pieces of a puzzle. Further, enhanced web searching and webcrawling technologies currently available may facilitate such areconstruction of identity from pieces of PII 114.

A technique is introduced herein which may be utilized to help preventthe unwitting or inadvertent release of PII through the use of contentupload tools 116(1)-116(N). Clients 102(1)-102(N) are depicted as havingrespective content upload tools 116(1)-116(N) that are representative ofsoftware which may be utilized to monitor respective outboundcommunications to detect, manage, and/or track the release of PII 114 incontent 112. Content upload tools 116(1)-116(N) may be implemented asone or more modules that may include a variety of monitoring, filtering,reporting and management features further discussion of which may befound in relation to FIG. 2.

In an implementation, content upload tools 116(1)-116(N), executed onthe respective clients 102(1)-102(N) are configured to scan content112(1)-112(N) of outbound communications prior to sending thecommunication from clients 102(1)-102(N) to determine if PII 114 iscontained in the communication. For example, a communication module108(1) of client 102(1) may be executed to form content 112(1)configured as an entry for a web blog or online in an online messageboard provided by a web service 106. The blog entry may include PII114(k), such as a telephone number “555-1234” and a name “Bob Smith”.Respective content upload tool 116(1) operates to monitor the content ofthe intended blog posting and detects the content 112(1) prior to thedata actually being posted. For instance content 112(1) of the intendedoutbound communication (e.g., posting) may be scanned to detect the PII114(k) included therein. Upon detection of PII 114(k), content uploadtool 116(1) may be configured to perform one or more additional actionsfor management of the PII 114(k) such as preventing and/or restrictingthe communication of the content 112(1). For example, such actions mayinclude quarantining the content 112(1), providing a notification,redacting the content 112(1), deleting the content, or performance ofother actions for managing PII 114 further discussion of which may befound in relation to FIG. 2. Therefore, detected PII 114(k) may betreated accordingly, such as being flagged, restricted, modified(redacted), routed to a quarantine folder, deleted, and so on.

The content upload tools 116(1)-116(N) may be configured in a variety ofways to provide management of PII 114. For example, the content uploadtools 116(1)-116(N) may be preconfigured and provided to each of theclients 102(1)-102(N) to detect PII 114 and perform actions which areset by default. Further, a user may personalize one of content uploadtools 116(1)-116(N) to manage user specified PII 114, to respond todetected PII 114 in customized ways, to respond to different recipientsin customized ways, and so forth.

In other instances portions of the functionality of content upload tools116(1)-116(N) may operate in combination with or be provided by one ormore content upload tool service 118 via network 104. A representativecontent upload tool service 118 is depicted in FIG. 1 which includes acontent upload manager module 120. Content upload manager module 120represents functionality to provide content upload service via network104, to manage the service and access to the service, to interact with aplurality of clients 102(1)-102(N), and so forth. Further, contentupload manager module 120 may incorporate functionality to provideservices to client 102(1)-102(N) including compiling and providing PIIdefinitions, account management for groups of associated clients and/orindividuals, tracking and reporting features for released PII, riskassessments, threat alerts and so forth, which is further described inrelation to FIG. 2.

In an implementation, the content upload tool service 118 may alsoprovide content upload tools as a service over network 104 andaccordingly is illustrated as including a respective content upload tool116(m). Thus, content upload tool service 118 may be configured tomonitor outbound communications of a plurality of clients 102(1)-102(N)via network 104. For instance, clients 102(1)-102(N) may be configuredto direct outbound communications to content upload tool service 118 fordetection of PII 114 before releasing respective content 112(1)-112(N).Naturally, the functionality described as provided by content uploadmanager module 120 may be implemented through one or more sub-modules,further discussion of which may be found in relation to FIG. 2.

Generally, any of the functions described herein can be implementedusing software, firmware (e.g., fixed logic circuitry), manualprocessing, or a combination of these implementations. The terms“module,” “functionality,” and “logic” as used herein generallyrepresent software, firmware, or a combination of software and firmware.In the case of a software implementation, the module, functionality, orlogic represents program code that performs specified tasks whenexecuted on a processor (e.g., CPU or CPUs). The program code can bestored in one or more computer readable memory devices, furtherdescription of which may be found in relation to FIG. 2. The features ofthe content upload safety techniques described below areplatform-independent, meaning that the techniques may be implemented ona variety of commercial computing platforms having a variety ofprocessors.

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a system 200 in an exemplary implementationshowing the plurality of clients 102(n) and the content upload toolservice 118 of FIG. 1 in greater detail. Client 102(n) is representativeof any of the plurality of clients 102(1)-102(N) of FIG. 1, andtherefore reference will be made to client 102(n) in both singular andplural form. The content upload tool service 118 is illustrated as beingimplemented by one or more servers 202(q) (where “q” may be any numberfrom one to “Q”) and the client 102(n) is illustrated as a clientdevice. Further, the server(s) 202(q) and the client 102(n) areillustrated as including respective processors 204(q), 206(n) andrespective memory 208(q), 210(n).

Processors are not limited by the materials from which they are formedor the processing mechanisms employed therein. For example, processorsmay be comprised of semiconductor(s) and/or transistors (e.g.,electronic integrated circuits (ICs)). In such a context,processor-executable instructions may be electronically-executableinstructions. Alternatively, the mechanisms of or for processors, andthus of or for a computing device, may include, but are not limited to,quantum computing, optical computing, mechanical computing (e.g., usingnanotechnology), and so forth. Additionally, although a single memory208(q), 210(n) is shown for the respective server(s) 202(q) and client102(n), memory 208(q) and 210(n) may be representative of a wide varietyof types and combinations of memory that may be employed, such as randomaccess memory (RAM), hard disk memory, removable medium memory, andother computer-readable media.

The clients 102(n) are illustrated as executing the communication module108(n) on the processor 206(n), which are also storable in memory210(n). The communication module 108(n) is executable to form content112(n) for outbound communication via the communication module 108(n),for instance email messages. Further, the content 112(n) may include avariety of PII 114. The content upload tools 116(n) are illustrated asbeing stored in memory 210(n) and are executable on the processor 206(n)to monitor outbound communications for detection and management of PII114. For instance, the upload tool may operate in the background onclients 102(n) and monitor for PII in content 112(n) before it isreleased, e.g., sent from the client 102(n) to a recipient via network104. The client 102(n) may employ a variety of architectures to performthis monitoring of outbound communications for PII 114, and one or moresubsequent actions, an example of which is described as follows.

The content upload tool 116(n) is depicted in FIG. 2 as implemented viaa variety of sub-modules which may include a detection module 212, a PIImanagement module 214, and a mapping module 216. As previouslydescribed, the content upload tool 116(n) may be configured to detectand manage a variety of PII 114 in outbound communications of clients102(n). In one or more implementations, a variety of configurations,settings, and/or data is maintained accessible to client 102(n) and usedby the content upload tool 116(n) for the detecting and managing of PII114. For instance, memory 210(n) includes storage 218 which is depictedas storing PII definitions 220, preferences 222 and upload history 224.Thus, content upload tool 116(n) and/or the variety of sub-modules mayaccess a variety of data from storage 218 to perform the detection andmanagement of PII 114. It is noted that the variety of data may also beaccessible via network 104 from remote storage, such as from memory208(q) of content upload service 118, or other remote storage. Thus,configurations, settings, and/or data utilized by content upload tool116(n) may be accessed locally, retrieved by a client 102(n) from remotestorage, and/or synced with data maintained in remote storage vianetwork 104.

The detection module 212, for instance, is representative offunctionality to monitor outbound communications of client 102(n) todetect and identify PII 114. Detection module 212 may operate in thebackground on a client 102(n) to monitor outbound communications from avariety of sources, for example a plurality of communications modules108(n), a plurality of ports of the client 102(n) and so on. Detectionmodule 212 may further determine if the outbound communications containPII 114 such as by scanning or examining content items 112(n) in thecommunications. Further, the determination may be based upon a varietyof PII definitions 220. Thus, the detection module may be configured toaccess a plurality of PII definitions 220 and from local storage 218 orremote storage, and may use the PII definitions 220 to determine ifcontent 112(n) includes PII 114.

PII definitions 220 generally describe the PII 14 which the contentupload tool 116(n) will scan to detect. The PII definitions 220 mayadditionally include data to categorize PII 114 by different types, toassociate different levels of risks with different PII 114, andinstructions for detecting various PII 114.

PII definitions 220 may be configured in a variety of ways to describePII 114 which is to be detected. For instance, PII definitions 220 mayinclude common formats for PII 114 such as for social security numbers“xxx-xx-xxx”, phone numbers “(xxx) xxx-xxx”, credit card numbers, and soforth. Thus, detection module 212 may be configured to scan for theseand a variety of other common formats of PII 114. Further, PIIdefinitions 220 may include specific values such as “555-1234”, “123Cherry Lane” which may be wholly or partially matched. Users may alsodefine specific values or keywords in PII definitions 220, which mightinclude information that is considered private by the user, and whichaccordingly the user may not want to be sent out in posted content. Someexamples may be a yearly income, a membership in an organization, drugprescriptions, and so forth. Thus, users may define keywords or valuesin PII definitions 220 which cause detection module 212 to scan for thedefined information.

PII definitions 220 may further include contextual values and keywords.For instance, “SSN”, “DOB”, and “Home Address” are examples of valueswhich are indicative of particular PII 114 in a content item 112(n).Accordingly, PII definitions 220 may be configured with a variety ofcontextual values and keywords which a detection module 212 may use fordetection of PII 114. The detection module may operate on the contentproduced by users (e.g. values input by users) as well on the contentcontained in web pages, forms, interfaces, and so forth involved in userinteractions. For instance, if user sends an e-mail and uses the phrase“SSN” this may be flagged as PII. In another instance, user may bepresented with a form including a data entry field labeled as “CreditCard No.” and based on application of contextual values to the form,data input into the field may be identified as PII.

Once PII 114 is detected, content upload tool 116(n) may perform one ormore additional actions to manage the PII 114. PII management module 214is representative of functionality to manage detected PII 114 which mayinclude one or more of preventing the corresponding outboundcommunication, quarantine of content having PII 114, applyingrestrictions on PII 114, forming notification regarding PII, redactingthe content 112(n) associated with the PII 114, deleting the content 112and/or PII 114, seeking permission to allow release of the PII 114 andso on.

For example, a user may use a communication module 108(n) configured asa web browser to fill in a purchasing form provided by a web service 106configured as a merchant site. The user may input credit card info intothe form obtained from the web service and displayed to the user on theclient 102(n) via the web browser. Prior to sending or posting of theinput purchasing data to the web service 106, detection module 212 maydetect the PII 114, e.g. credit card info in the outbound content112(n). The PII management module 214 may then perform one or moreactions to manage to PII 114.

For instance, a warning may be generated indicating that PII 114 hasbeen detected in the outbound communication. The warning may becommunicated to the user in as variety of ways, such as via a prompt orpop-up box in the web browser. The warning may include a variety ofinformation, such as identifying the PII 114, indicating risksassociated with the PII 114, and/or links to additional information.Further, a variety of options may be provided such as continuing withposting the content (override or ignore), options to modify or deletethe PII 114, options to seek authorization for releasing the PII 114,and so forth,

In an implementation, PII management module 214 may manage PII 114 forgroups of associated users. Preferences 222 set for certain users in agroup of associated users, such as children, may require authorizationfrom a supervisor, such as a parent, before a posting with PII 114 isallowed. The warning accordingly, may be configured to provide an optionto get the necessary authorization from a parent or to delete theposting. Authorization may be obtained in a variety of ways. Forinstance, PII management module 214 may be configured to determine ifthe parent or supervisor is online and may send an email or instantmessage seeking authorization. Alternatively, PII management module 214may place the content item 112(n) in a quarantine folder untilauthorization is obtained.

For example, a child may write an email to be sent to a friend withdirections to their house including the home address. Prior to sendingthe email to the friend, the detection module 212 may scan the email andidentify the home address as PII 114. PII management module 214 mayprovide notice to the child that the address information may not be sentwithout authorization or approval from the parent. An option to seekauthorization or to delete the PII 114 or the email message may begiven. If the child chooses to seek authorization, PII management module214 may determine if the parent is on-line and may send an authorizationmessage such as by e-mail or instant message. If authorization isobtained, the e-mail may be sent. If the parent is not available, theemail may be quarantined until it is reviewed by the parent and eitherpermitted or rejected.

In an implementation, the management of detected PII 114 is based on avariety of preferences 222 which may be set by default, user defined ora combination thereof. A variety of preferences 222 are depicted asstored within storage 218 in memory 210(n) of client 102(n). Preferences222 may also be accessible to clients 102(n) via network 104.Preferences 222 may be configured to define rules for the detection andmanagement of PII 114. For instance preferences may define which PII 114or types of PII 114 will be detected, e.g. via detection module 212. Inother words, detection of various PII may be toggled (e.g., turned on oroff) via preferences 222 either by default settings or by userconfiguration. As an example a user may set preferences which indicatethat contact information such as a home address will not be detected asPII 114 and that financial information such as credit card number willbe detected as PII 114.

Preferences 222 may also include data which defines a set of rules forthe management of PII 114 such as by PII management module 214. Forinstance, rules may be defined regarding what PII 114 may be released,to which recipients it may be released, conditions for the release ofPII, actions to be taken with respect to different types of PII 114and/or content 112(n) containing PII 114 and so forth. Thus, PIImanagement module 214 may be configured to apply the rules specified inthe preferences 222 to manage detected PII 114.

For instance, preferences 222 may be set which filter outbound PII 114based on the recipient such as according to various email addresses, websites, uniform resources locators (URLS), instant message contacts andso forth. Thus, preferences 222 may indicate permission to receiveand/or restrictions upon receiving PII 114 based on the intendedrecipients. Further, permissions/restrictions may be different fordifferent categories or types of PII 114. For instance, particulare-mail contacts may be permitted to receive contact information such asa home phone number, but would not be permitted to receive a credit cardnumber or social security number. A variety of different PII 114category restrictions are contemplated.

In an implementation, preferences 222 may be established based at leastin part upon a rating service which provides relative risk ratings forvarious entities (e.g., potential recipients of PII 114). For example, arating service may provide risk ratings for a plurality of web services106 previously described. A web service 106 with relatively high riskrating from the service may be entirely prevented from receiving PII114, while another web service 106 with a lower associated risk may bepermitted to receive some types of PII 114 and so on. Client 102(n) mayaccess ratings from network 104 which may include accessing on demand ordownloading of ratings on a periodic basis. In an implementation, therating service may be provided by the content upload tool service 118previously described or as a stand alone third party service, such as aweb service 106 configured to provide the risk ratings.

In an implementation a mapping module 216 is included with contentupload tool 116(n) which is representative of functionality to trackreleased PII 114 and provide a history or map of the tracked PII 114 Aspreviously discussed preferences 222 may permit some types of PII 114 tobe released, to some recipients. Mapping module 216 may track thesereleases of PII 114 may be tracked and subsequently a map or history ofthe released PII 114 may be generated.

For instance, upload history 224 is depicted as being stored in storage218 of client 102(n). The upload history 224 is configured to indicatewhich PII 114 was released, who received the PII 114 and when it wasreleased. Further, mapping module 216 may be configured to provide theupload history 224 to a client 102(n) and or user, for instance viareports configured for a display on a display device or communicated viaemail or instant messaging. A user may then review the PII 114 that hasbeen allowed to go outbound to various recipients.

Further, mapping module 216 may be configured to analyze the PII 114released by type and associated risk. Based on the analysis an overallrelative risk rating for the client 102(n) may be determined. Therelative rating may be communicated as a number value, a visual valuesuch as a color scale, a textual scale (e.g., “low”, “ok”, “medium”,“high”) and so on. Reports by mapping module 216 may be generated ondemand, on a periodic basis, upon the crossing of a threshold risk leveland so forth. Thus, users may be provided with an upload historyinforming them how much PII 114 various web services 106 or otherrecipients may have been given and an indication of the relative amountof risk represented by the released PII 114. Users may then take action,such as to remove or request removal of the PII 114 from one or morerecipient.

As previously described, clients 102(n) may also interact via network104 with a content upload tool service 118 which is illustrated asexecuting content upload manager module 120 on processor 204(q) ofserver 202(q) and which is also storable in memory 208(q). Contentupload manager module 120 is executable to provide content upload toolservices to a plurality of clients 102(n) and may include functionalityto manage the service, to access the service, and to interact with aplurality of clients 102(n). Content upload manager module 120 isfurther illustrated as having a variety of sub-modules including anaccount manager module 226 and a risk assessment module 228.

Account manager module 226 represents functionality within contentupload manager module 120 to manage a plurality of accounts 230(t)(where “t” may be any integer from two to “T”). For instance, users ofthe content upload service 118 may register for respective accounts230(t) which are illustrated as being maintained in storage 232 inmemory 208(q). Accounts 230(t) may correspond to individual users orgroups of associated users such as a family, business organization,household and so forth. Users may sign-in to a respective account 230(t)with the content upload tool service 118 from a variety of client 102(n)devices to access their account 230(t) and data and/or servicesassociated with the account. A variety of account data may be associatedwith respective accounts 230(t) which may include for exampleassociations 234(t), upload data 236(t), PII definitions 238(t),preferences 240(t), and risk reports 242(t).

In an implementation, the account manager module 226 may be configuredto send and receive various data associated with accounts 230(t) to andfrom clients 102(n). For example, content upload tools on clients 102(n)may be configured to provide upload data 236(t), PII definitions 238(t),and preferences 240(t) for maintenance by the account manager module 226with respective accounts 230(t).

Upload Data 236(t) represents upload history data 224 indicating PII 114that has been released as previously described and which is receivedfrom one or more of clients 102(n). The content upload tool 116(n) of aclient 102(n) may be configured to provide account manager module 226upload history data 224 via network 104. The account manager module 226then associates the upload data 236(t) from one or more clients with acorresponding account 230(t).

Similarly, PII definitions 238(t) and preferences 240(t) may beconfigured as PII definitions 220 and preferences 222 previouslydescribed, and which are maintained for an associated account 230(t) andstored remotely from clients 102(n). PII definitions 238(t) andpreferences 240(t) may be generated for an account 230(t) at the contentupload tool service 118 or may be transferred to the content upload toolservice 118 from corresponding PII definitions 220 and preferences 222of a client 102(n).

Thus, in alternative or in addition to having information such as PIIdefinitions 220, preferences 222, and upload history 224 in storage 218on a client device 102(n), the content upload tool service may beconfigured to maintain the same or similar types of information inremotely accessible storage. In this manner, a particular user mayaccess the same account 230(t) and associated settings from a variety ofclient devices 102(n). For instance a user may at various times uses avariety of client devices 102(n) such as each of a home computer, anoffice computer, a mobile phone, and a set-top box. Account managermodule 226 may be configured to provide settings such as PII definitions238(t) and preferences 240(t) to each of the client devices 102(n) vianetwork 104 for use by respective content upload tools 116(n).

Accounts 230(t) may further include a variety of associations 234(t),which may indicate various clients 102(n), accounts 230(t) and/or userswhich are associated. Accordingly, content upload tool service may beconfigured to manage one or more groups of associated users, which maybe for example, a family, a household, a business group, and so on. Avariety of groups are contemplated which may have or may define commonPII 114. For instance, a family may have a common street address,surname, phone number, credit card number and so forth. Similarly anorganization such as a business has common PII 114 such as the businessname, accounts, customers and so forth. Each member of a group mayengage in activities which may release PII 114. Accordingly, it may bebeneficial to use the content upload safety techniques described hereinto manage PII 114 for entire family or group as whole.

Associations 234(t) represent one illustrative technique for managing agroup of associated users or clients. Accounts 230(t) of various usersand or clients 102(n) may be associated as group and accordinglyassociations 234(t) indicate which users are associated. Common uploaddata 236(t), PII definitions 238(t), preferences 240(t) and so forth maybe maintained for the group. One or more supervisory account 230(t) maybe established to manage the group such as by configuring settings forthe group, managing associations (e.g. group membership and so forth),establishing subordinate accounts, privileges and so on. In the exampleof a family, a parent may have a supervisor account and subordinateaccounts may be established for one or more child. The parent may thenconfigure the settings (e.g., PII definitions 238(t), preferences 240(t)and so forth) for the family.

As previously noted, the content upload tool service 118 may include acontent upload tool 116(m) to perform techniques for detection andmanagement of PII as a service via network. In an implementation, theoutbound communications for a plurality of clients 102(n) may bemonitored directly by the content upload tool service 118, rather thanby content upload tools 116(n) on each client 102(n). For instance,outbound communications of a group of associated users who may uses aplurality of client devices 102(n) may monitored by the content uploadtool service 118, such that the activities of a group of associatedusers may be managed.

Risk assessment module 228 represents functionality for a variety oftracking and reporting features for released PII 114, risk assessments,threat alerts and so forth. For instance, risk assessment module may beexecuted to analyze upload data 236(t) maintained for a particularaccount 230(t) or group of associated accounts and to generate arespective risk report 242(t). Based on the PII 114 indicated by uploaddata 236(t), the risk assessment module 228 makes an assessment of therisk exposure of the associated account. In other words, an assessmentof a likelihood of identity theft, breaches of privacy, and so forth.The report may accordingly provide the upload data 236(t), indicationsof the risk associated with each item of PII 114 released, an overallassessment of risk such as a relative risk rating, information oncurrent threats, and so forth. Relative risk may be a rating which maybe communicated in a variety of ways such as numerical value, a color ona color scale, textual risk level (e.g., “high risk”) and so on.

In an implementation, the risk assessment module 228 may be furtherconfigured to compile and utilize additional PII data with upload data236(t) in generating a risk report 242(t). While upload data 236(t) mayindicate known releases of PII 114, additional unknown PII 114 fromother sources may exist on the world wide web, such as data posted bythird party or by a user if they permitted the release. In one instance,the risk assessment module 228 may perform a web search to search forPII 114 corresponding to an account 230(t), such as via web crawler or“bot”. The web crawler may be executed to seek out and identifyadditional PII 114 and may utilizes the preferences 240(t) and PIIdefinitions 238(t) for an account 230(t) to perform the search.

The web crawler may be configured to seek PII 114 from a set of knowncontent sources of a particular user (e.g., commonly accessed sites,accounts and so forth). Further, the scope of the search may be variedto include or exclude various content sources, such as those mostfrequently used by all users of the service, known high risk sites andso forth. The PII 114 obtained via the web crawler may be used incombination with the upload data to produce a comprehensive map view ofPII 114 displayed on or available from the variety of content sources.In an implementation the assessment report 242(t) includes links to allthe identified content sources so that users may easily clean or deletePII 114 which may put them at risk.

The risk report 242(t) may be communicated to a client 102(n) or user ina variety of modes and formats, such as via a user interface, by e-mail,instant message and so forth. Risk assessment module 228 may beconfigured to periodically generate and automatically send a risk report242(t) to an account holder, or a group supervisor. Additionally oralternatively, risk reports 242(t) may be generated or accessed ondemand.

Exemplary Procedures

The following discussion describes user interaction techniques that maybe implemented utilizing the previously described systems and devices.Aspects of each of the procedures may be implemented in hardware,firmware, or software, or a combination thereof. The procedures areshown as a set of blocks that specify operations performed by one ormore devices and are not necessarily limited to the orders shown forperforming the operations by the respective blocks. It should also benoted that the following exemplary procedures may be implemented in awide variety of other environments without departing from the spirit andscope thereof.

FIG. 3 depicts a procedure 300 in an exemplary implementation in which adetermination is made whether outbound communications contain personalidentifying information PII. A plurality of outbound communications of aclient device are monitored (block 302). For instance, one or more usermay use the client 102(n) of FIG. 2 to produce content 112(n) which willbe uploaded via network 104. A user for example may utilize acommunication module 108(n) configured as web browser to engage ine-commerce with a web service 106 which is an on-line merchant. Apurchase form may be exposed in which the user may input a variety ofpurchasing information, including a credit card number. In another,example another user may use a communication module 108(n) configuredfor instant messaging to engage in an instant messaging session withanother client 102(n) and/or user. This user may produce an instantmessage having a variety of information and which for this exampleincludes the user's phone number and home address.

The content upload tool 112(n) may be configured to monitor these and avariety of other outbound communications of a corresponding client102(n). More particularly, the detection module 212 may execute tomonitor the communication modes (one or more communication modules108(n)), the ports of client 102(n), and so forth for outboundcommunications. For example, when the user engaging in the purchasingtransaction hits enter to send the information via the web browser,detection module 212 may understand that the web browser is attemptingto send an outbound communication. Similarly, when the instant messaginguser hits send, detection module 212 may understand that the user isattempting to send the outbound instant message.

A determination is made for each outbound communication whether personalidentifying information (PII) is contained in the communication (block304). Continuing the preceding example, at the time the user attempts tosend purchasing information and similarly for the instant message, thecontent upload tool 112(n) and more particularly detection module 212,makes a determination as to whether the outbound content contains PII114. For instance, detection module 212 may scan each outboundcommunication for potential PII 114 before the communication is sent tothe intended recipient. The determination may be based upon a set of PIIdefinitions 220 and preferences 222 as previously described. As the PIIdefinitions 220 may define PII 114 according to common formats,keywords, user specified PII, and so on. Further, preferences 222 may beset that define which PII 114 may be provided to various recipients orcontacts, such as an allowed list or filter. Thus, PII 114 may behandled differently for different potential recipients.

In the present example, assume that the credit card information in thepurchasing transaction, and that the phone number and home address inthe instant message are defined as PII 114 in PII definitions 220.Accordingly, the determination will be made that each of these outboundcommunications (the purchasing data and instant message) contains PII114.

In another instance, preferences 222 may permit certain PII 114 tocertain recipients. For instance, the user may designate certainindividuals or websites to be trustworthy. Additionally or alternativelya particular web service or site may be trusted based upon a ratingservice that rates the security and privacy of sites and has indicatedthat the site/service matches acceptable standards. Accordingly,detection module 212 may not scan for these allowed types of PII 114 Forinstance, the id associated with the potential recipient (e.g.individual name, web address, URL) of the instant message may beincluded in an allow list for contact information in preferences 222.Thus, the instant message to the recipient may not be determined toinclude PII 114. Alternatively, detection module 212 will scan for thepermitted PII 114 and the instant message will be determined to includePII 114, however, the outbound instant message will automatically bepermitted. In this manner a variety of PII 114 may be detected inoutbound communications

FIG. 4 depicts a procedure 400 in an exemplary implementation in whichpersonal identifying information (PII) in content is detected, managedand when released tracked. Personal identifying information (PII) isdetected in the content of an outbound communication (block 402). Forexample, the content upload tool 116(n) of FIG. 2 may operate to use PIIdefinitions 220 to detect PII 114 in a content item 112(n). The contentitem 112(n) may be an email generated by a communication moduleconfigured as an email application. A user using the application mayform an email such as to a friend which may contain certain PII 114 suchas the user's name, a date of birth (DOB), a picture of the user and soforth. In particular a variety of detection schemes and techniquesdefined by PII definitions 220 may be accessed by the detection module212 of the content upload tool 116(n) and utilized for scanning of theemail. In this case, the PII 114 formatted as a name, a DOB, and apicture may be detected in the outbound email.

One or more actions are performed to manage the detected PII (block404). For instance, the email in the previous example is scanned by thedetection module 212 prior to being sent. Since PII 114 was detected,(e.g. the name, DOB, and picture) a variety of actions may occur tomanage the detected PII 114. User preferences 222 as previouslydescribed may determine which actions are performed.

In one instance, a warning may be generated such as by PII managementmodule 214 which indicates to the user that PII is include in theoutbound communication. Further, the warning may indicate risksassociated with the PII 114 or the intended recipient. As an example thewarning may be presented as a pop-up window of the operating system ofclient 102(N), or within a user interface of the email-application. Avariety of other warnings are contemplated.

In an implementation the one or more actions may include providing anoption to send the communication having the PII 114. Thus, by selectingthis option the user may choose to send the email and disregard oroverride the warning. In another case, the email may contain PII 114which according to settings such as preferences 222 is never permitted(e.g., may not be overridden) and thus the email would be prevented frombeing sent. In the latter case, the email may be quarantined or may bedeleted automatically depending upon the particular preferences 222being applied.

In a further example, an option to remove the PII 114 from the outboundcommunication (e.g., to redact the email) may be provided. Thus, the PII114 detected may be removed automatically and the email sent safely.

As previously noted a group of users such as family members may haveassociated accounts and settings that are managed together. If asubordinate account is attempting to send PII 114, such as a child, thePII management module 214 may be configured to require approval from asupervisory account, such as a parent, before sending the message. Theparent may be provided some control over the content posting of theirchildren. In this instance, the child may be provided with a warningindicating that the PII 114 must be removed or that approval may beobtained in order to send the email of the present example. An optionmay be provided to seek approval. If an option for approval is sought,the intended communication (e.g., the email) may be quarantined pendingproper approval. As previously noted, a supervisor or parent may benotified for approval if available such as by an automatic email orinstant message if online, by an automated voicemail or voice overinternet protocol (VoIP) call, and so on sent by PII management module214. Alternatively, a supervisor or parent may approve by reviewing thequarantined email and determining whether it is to be permitted,deleted, redacted and so forth. Upon receipt of proper approval, theemail may be sent.

When PII is released, the released PII is tracked (block 406). Againusing the previous email example, the preferences 222 may allow the PII114 to be released, or an adult or parent may override a warning or giveapproval for release of the email containing the PII 114 (e.g. name,DOB, picture). Mapping module 216 may be executed to track released PII114 in these cases. For instance, mapping module may store trackingdata, e.g., upload history 224 which identifies PII 114 released, whenit was released, to whom it was released and so forth. Thus, mappingmodule 216 may be configured to store in storage 218 upload history 224indicating the release of the name, DOB, and picture in the emailexample previously discussed. Subsequently, the upload history 224 maybe utilized to report a mapping of all the released PII 114 to a user tofacilitate management of the PII 114, for instance removal of therelease PII.

FIG. 5 depicts a procedure 500 in an exemplary implementation in which awarning indicating that an outbound communication includes personalidentifying information. A determination is made whether an outboundcommunication includes personal identifying information (PII) (block502). For example, a client 102(1) of FIG. 1 may be interacting vianetwork 104 with a web service 106. In this example assume that the webservice 106 is configured to provide at least a web hosting 110(5)service. Thus the client 102(1) via communication module 108(1) may seekto post content 112(1) to a personal web site managed by the web service106. In this example the communication module may be configured as a webbrowser. The content 112(1) to be posted may be configured in a varietyof ways, such as web pages, pictures, text, data files and so forth.

Assume now, that the content 112(1) the client 102(1) is seeking to posta spreadsheet file including contact information for a variety ofpeople, such as a group of friends and/or family members. Thus, thespreadsheet may include a variety of addresses, phone numbers, names,e-mail addresses, and so forth. Thus the content 112(1) of this examplecontains a lot of PII 114(k).

Content upload tool 116(1) may be executed to monitor the intended fileupload to detect the PII 114(k) in accordance with the content uploadsafety techniques described herein. For instance, the spreadsheet filewhich the client 102(1) is attempting to post may be stopped prior tobeing sent from client 102(1) to the web service 106 via network 104.Then, content upload tool 116(1) may scan the spreadsheet file to makethe determination. In this example, the determination will be made thatthe outbound spreadsheet file does contains PII 114(k). In otherinstances, PII 114(k) will not be detected and the spreadsheet file maybe permitted to be sent without further action.

When the communication is determined to include personal identifyinginformation, a warning is formed indicating that the outboundcommunication contains personal identifying information (block 504). Inthe previous example, the spreadsheet file which the client 120(1) wasattempting to post was determined to include PII 114(k), in particularcontact information for a variety of persons. Thus, content upload tool116(1) will form a warning which indicates that PII has been found inthe intended upload.

The warning may be configured to indicate the PII 114 which was detectedand/or the risks of sending the PII 114. The warning as an example maybe a prompt, such as a prompt asking “Are You Sure You Wish to SendThis?” A variety of options for managing the PII 114 may be provided incombination with the warning. For instance, options may include optionsto allow the PII 114 to be sent, to delete the communication, to removethe PII 114 from the communication and so on.

In an implementation the warning may be configured for display inaccordance with the communication module 108(1) which formed theoutbound communication. Thus, in this instance, the web browser used topost content to web hosting 110(5) service may display the warning.Alternatively, a pop-up box, alert, email, instant message and so forthmay be used to communicate the warning which is formed by the contentupload tool 116(1).

CONCLUSION

Although the invention has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understoodthat the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or acts described. Rather, the specificfeatures and acts are disclosed as exemplary forms of implementing theclaimed invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method implemented on a computing device by aprocessor, the method comprising: monitoring a plurality of outboundcommunications of a client device; before each outbound communication issent from the client device, determining if the communication containspersonal identifying information (PII); storing tracking datacorresponding to the PII contained in the outbound communication,wherein the tracking data is utilized to report a mapping of releasedPII when the PII is released from the client device; managing the PIIfor a group of associated users, the group comprising a supervisoryaccount, wherein the supervisory account establishes a subordinateaccount and establishes privileges associated with the subordinateaccount; generating a risk assessment report for the group of associatedusers based at least upon the PII contained in the plurality of outboundcommunications, the risk assessment report providing informationidentifying the PII contained in the plurality of outboundcommunications and corresponding recipients of the outboundcommunications; and performing one or more actions to manage the PII inthe plurality of outbound communications, the one or more actionsincluding quarantining the outbound communication from the subordinateaccount at the client device and requesting approval from thesupervisory account before the outbound communication is sent from theclient device.
 2. The method as described in claim 1, wherein: thepersonal identifying information (PII) is determined based upon a set ofPII definitions; and the PII definitions include one or more common PIIformats used for the determining.
 3. The method as described in claim 2,wherein the personal identifying information definitions include one ormore keywords used for the determining.
 4. The method as described inclaim 2, wherein the personal identifying information definitionsinclude one or more user defined personal identifying information valuesused for the determining.
 5. The method as described in claim 1, whereinthe one or more actions include providing a warning indicating that theoutbound communication contains personal identifying information.
 6. Themethod as described in claim 5, wherein the warning further provides anoption to allow the sending of the outbound communication with thepersonal identifying information.
 7. The method as described in claim 5,wherein the warning further provides an option to remove the personalidentifying information from the outbound communication before sendingthe communication.
 8. The method as described in claim 1, wherein theapproval is requested from a parent of a child attempting to send theoutbound communication, the parent having the supervisory account andthe child having the subordinate account.
 9. The method as described inclaim 1, wherein the risk assessment report provides indications basedat least on aggregated PII, the indications including one or more of arisk associated with each item of PII released, an overall assessment ofthe risk from the aggregated PII, threat information, informationidentifying the PII released, or corresponding recipients of the PII.10. A method implemented on a computing device by a processor, themethod comprising: determining if an outbound communication containspersonal identifying information (PII); when the communication isdetermined to include the PII, forming a warning indicating that theoutbound communication contains the PII; tracking the PII by storingtracking data corresponding to the PII released in the outboundcommunication, wherein the tracking data is utilized to report a mappingof released PII; and generating a risk assessment report for a group ofassociated users based upon aggregated PII including PII released in theoutbound communication and additional PII identified from a search of atleast one of a plurality of third party accounts, the risk assessmentreport providing indications including an overall assessment of riskbased at least on the aggregated PII.
 11. The method as described inclaim 10, wherein the forming is performed before the outboundcommunication is sent over a network to a recipient.
 12. The method asdescribed in claim 10, wherein the outbound communication is selectedfrom the group consisting of: an email; an instant message; a webposting; a blog entry; a chat message; a voice over internet protocol(VoIP) call; a text message; and a message to a web service generatedvia input to a browser form.
 13. The method as described in claim 10,wherein the risk assessment report indicates an overall level of riskfor the group based upon the released PII.
 14. The method as describedin claim 10, wherein the risk assessment report includes one or morelinks configured to facilitate removal of the PII from thecommunications sent to one or more of the recipients.
 15. The method asdescribed in claim 10, wherein the risk assessment report providesindications including one or more of a risk associated with each item ofPII released, threat information, information identifying the PIIreleased, or corresponding recipients of the PII.
 16. One or morememories comprising computer executable instructions that, whenexecuted, direct a client to perform operations comprising: managing thepersonal identifying information (PII) for a group of associated users,the group comprising a supervisory account, wherein the supervisoryaccount establishes a subordinate account and establishes privilegesassociated with the subordinate account; before each outboundcommunication is sent, determining if the communication contains PII;outputting a warning before sending a communication from the client whenthe communication contains PII; in an event an authorization to send thecommunication is received responsive to the warning: sending thecommunication releasing the PII; tracking the PII by storing trackingdata corresponding to the PII released in the outbound communication,wherein the tracking data is utilized to report a mapping of releasedPII; and generating a risk assessment report for the group of associatedusers based at least upon the PII released in the outbound communicationaggregated with the PII released in earlier outbound communications ofthe plurality of outbound communications; and in an event noauthorization to send the communication is received responsive to thewarning, performing one or more actions to manage the PII in theplurality of outbound communications, the one or more actions includingquarantining the outbound communication.
 17. One or more memories asdescribed in claim 16, further comprising instructions to detectpersonal identifying information in the communication based upon aplurality of definitions describing personal identifying information.18. One or more memories as described in claim 17, further comprisinginstructions to perform one or more actions to manage detected personalidentifying information.
 19. One or more memories as described in claim18, further comprising instructions to track personal identifyinginformation sent from the client in the performance of the one or moreactions.
 20. One or more memories as described in claim 16, wherein therisk assessment report provides a risk indication based at least onaggregating the PII released in the plurality of outboundcommunications, the risk assessment report providing an indicationincluding at least one of a risk associated with each item of PIIreleased, an overall assessment of risk based at least on the aggregatedPII, threat information from the aggregated PII, information identifyingthe PII released, or corresponding recipients of the PII.